Barack Obama

Obama Announces OMB Chiefs

Updated 12:52 p.m.By Michael A. Fletcher
President-elect Barack Obama continued to fill out his economic team today, naming Peter R. Orszag director of the Office of Management and Budget, the arm of the White House responsible for crafting the federal budget and overseeing the effectiveness of federal programs.

Speaking at his second news conference in two days, Obama said that Orszag will take the lead in scouring the federal budget, which is straining under record deficits, with an eye toward eliminating programs that do not work. Obama called that task an essential complement to his desire to enact a huge economic stimulus package soon after he takes office. His stimulus plan, which is being crafted by his growing team of economic advisers, has a goal of creating or saving 2.5 million jobs over the next two years -- an undertaking that some analysts say could cost as much as $700 billion.

"If we're going to make the investments we need, we must also be willing to shed the spending we don't," Obama said. "In these challenging times, when we are facing both rising deficits and a sinking economy, budget reform is not an option. It is an imperative."

Orszag, 39, is director of the Congressional Budget Office, where he oversees a staff of 235 people who produce nonpartisan analyses of economic and policy issues. Orszag is widely respected for his work looking at how Americans receive medical care. Unlike many of his predecessors, who hewed closely to pure number-crunching, Orszag has carved out a niche as a leading international thinker on health policy.

In particular, Orszag has promoted comparative effectiveness research that would identify and promote the most appropriate, most cost effective therapies and discourage use of unproven or overly expensive treatments.

At the CBO, Orszag significantly increased the size of the health policy team and created a high-powered Panel of Health Advisers. "Rising health-care costs represent the central fiscal challenge facing the country," he told the Senate Finance Committee in July.

Obama also named Rob Nabors, staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, to be deputy director of OMB. Before going to work on the Appropriations staff in 2001, Nabors worked at OMB during the Clinton administration, where he was a senior adviser and assistant director for administration.

"We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness,or exist solely because of the power of a politician, lobbyist, or interest group," Obama said in making the announcements. "We simply cannot afford it."

Obama's prepared remarks follow:

Good morning.

I speak to you today, mindful that we meet at a moment of great challenge for America, as our credit markets are stressed, and our families are struggling. But as difficult as these times are, I'm confident that we will rise to meet this challenge - if we're willing to band together and recognize that Wall Street cannot thrive so long as Main Street is struggling; if we're willing to summon a new spirit of ingenuity and determination; and if Americans of great intellect, broad experience, and good character are willing to serve in government at this hour of need.

Yesterday, I announced four such Americans to help lead the economic team that will advise me as we seek to climb out of this crisis. Today, Vice President-elect Biden and I are pleased to announce two other key members of our team - Peter Orszag as Director and Robert Nabors as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Before I explain why I selected these outstanding public servants, let me just say a word about the work I am asking them to undertake. As I said yesterday, the economic crisis we face demands that we invest immediately in a series of measures that will help save or create two and a half million jobs and put tax cuts in the pockets of the hard-pressed middle class. Many of those new jobs will come in areas such as energy independence, technology, and health care modernization that will strengthen our economy for the future.

But if we're going to make the investments we need, we must also be willing to shed the spending we don't. In these challenging times, when we are facing both rising deficits and a sinking economy, budget reform is not an option. It is an imperative. We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness, or exist solely because of the power of a politician, lobbyist, or interest group. We simply cannot afford it.

This isn't about big government or small government. It's about building a smarter government that focuses on what works. That is why I will ask my team to think anew and act anew to meet our new challenges. We will go through our federal budget - page by page, line by line - eliminating those programs we don't need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way.

Let me give you one example of what I'm talking about. There's a report today that from 2003 to 2006, millionaire farmers received $49 million in crop subsidies even though they were earning more than the $2.5 million cutoff for such subsidies. If this is true, it is a prime example of the kind of waste I intend to end as President.

And we will also focus on one of the biggest, long-run challenges that our budget faces - namely, the rising cost of health care in both the public and private sectors. This is not just a challenge but also an opportunity to improve the health care that Americans rely on and to bring down the costs that taxpayers, businesses, and families have to pay.

That is what the OMB will do in my administration - it will not only help design a budget and manage its implementation, it will also help make sure that our government -- your government -- is more efficient and more effective at serving the American people.

There is no better person to help lead this effort as Director of the OMB than my friend Peter Orszag. Peter has been one of our nation's leading voices on budgetary issues. It is said that a nation's budget reflects its priorities. I believe that is true. And I know that Peter will bring to his work at the OMB a set of priorities that I - and the American people - share.

Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions in our understanding of all the major economic challenges we are now confronting - from reducing medical costs to saving Social Security to fighting global climate change to helping put the dream of a college degree within reach for more students.

As Director of the Congressional Budget Office, he reenergized and reinvigorated the agency, while shifting its focus to confront the health care crisis that is not only a cause of so much suffering for so many families, but a rapidly growing portion of our budget and a drag on our entire economy.

But it is not simply Peter's past career that makes him qualified for his new appointment, it is his vision for the future. He believes, as I do, that even as we take steps to restore discipline to our budget, we must also take the steps right now that are necessary to solve our immediate crisis.

Peter doesn't need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget. He knows what works and what doesn't, what is worthy of our precious tax dollars and what is not. Just because a program, a special interest tax break or corporate subsidy is tucked into this year's budget, does not mean it should survive the next. The old ways of Washington simply can't meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

And no one is more able or more qualified to assist Peter in this work as Deputy Director of the OMB than Robert Nabors. Rob will bring to this post experience in the executive branch, at the OMB, where he helped the Clinton administration achieve balanced budgets, as well as in the legislative branch, where he led the appropriations committee staff as a driving force for a responsible budget. Together with Peter, Rob will help steer our budget through Congress so that I can sign it into law.

Now, let me be clear: these appointments and the appointments I announced yesterday are not the sum of my economic team. These appointees will work with those I have yet to announce - including the secretaries of Energy and Labor, Commerce and Health and Human Services and others in my administration - to design a recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street, and to put our economy on a path to long-term growth and prosperity.

Because at this moment, we must not only restore confidence in our markets. We must also restore the confidence of middle class families that their government is on their side - that it's working for them - on their behalf - to meet their families' needs. And that is exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States of America. Thank you.

Comments

I hope that this budget director will also look at the waste and abuse in government claims. Often these whistleblowers get reassigned out of their jobs or lose them altogether because they saw something they considered to be waste or abuse in a government program.

Also, a look at government bounty that is claimed or paid when a private citizen attempts to recover government funds that were used in an unlawful manner.